President Obama's War

In what was certain to be a controversial decision, no matter what he decided, President Obama announced tonight that he will send 30,000 more troops to the war effort in Afghanistan. Much of the left wing, and a few conservatives, will lament that the US should totally pull out of Afghanistan. Most of the right wing will decry the decision, saying that the President has only gone “half-way” in meeting General McChrystal’s troop requests. And, maybe most importantly, the children of America will be angry because the President pre-empted the Charley Brown Christmas Special.

A refrain that has been heard from much of the right side of the aisle is that President Obama has an obligation to “listen to his generals.” In fact, while the President has a moral obligation to listen to his generals, he is definitely not obligated to follow those recommendations. Our founding fathers, in their wisdom, set up our government so that the ultimate control of the military was vested in civilian leaders. In fact, unlike many other countries, an active duty military man cannot even hold public office. This has served our country well for over 200 years. We have never had to undergo a military coup, as have so many other countries.

The founding fathers, remembering the dangers of power that is too centralized in one person or institution, set up our government to specifically avoid that problem. In fact, while the President of the United States is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, it is the Congress that controls the purse strings and can choose to fund or not fund wars. As commander-in-chief, however, the President is granted very broad powers in how he handles the military.

As much noise as we are hearing about the President deferring to his generals, there are a number of precedents of Presidents ignoring, overruling, and even firing his generals. Probably the most well-known example is that of Abraham Lincoln, who went through an entire panoply of generals until he came upon one, U.S. Grant, who would finally prosecute the Civil War the way Lincoln wanted it prosecuted. President Harry Truman famously fired war hero, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who took his policy disagreements with Truman public. More recently, President George W. Bush was castigated by the left for favoring Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld’s, idea of a smaller force in Iraq in favor of the larger force requested by his generals. The success of the surge, in this case, proved the generals correct.

So, while it is not incumbent upon a President to take his generals’ recommendations, it takes a large measure of self-confidence and even hubris not to do so. Of course, we know that there is no lack of hubris in this President.

I don’t know whether the President’s decision is the correct one. I hope it is. But whether it is the right decision, or not, the decision belongs to President Obama, alone. It is his strategy, not President Bush’s that will decide whether we go on to victory or defeat in Afghanistan. This is now President Obama’s war.